Jeffrey D. Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University Shreveport. If you're an elected official, political operative or anyone else upset at his views, don't go bothering LSUS or LSU System officials about that because these are his own views solely.
This publishes Sunday through Thursday with the exception of 7 holidays. Also check out his Louisiana Legislature Log especially during legislative sessions (in "Louisiana Politics Blog Roll" below).

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25.10.12

Emitting a yawp for “legislative independence” at the expense of losing
personal and Legislative power? For a handful of Louisiana Republican members
of the House of Representatives, it’s a gamble they take hoping to avoid this
consequence.

As noted previously, an effort for the Legislature to call itself into
special session to pursue an agenda
injurious to efficient policy implementation would turn the body into
little more than the equivalent of the Transportation
Security Administration for Louisiana on budget implementation, with the
chambers frisking executive decisions to find any evidence of policies that
could right-size state government and/or impede their abilities to feed statewide
or constituency-based special interests at taxpayer expense that assist in
their reelections, and then to try to eliminate any offensive implementation
decisions that threaten their reelections and/or trouble their faiths in big
government. The first of four steps, getting a chamber, the House, to sign a
petition to put the matter to a vote, has been achieved.

The author of the effort, state Rep. Dee Richard,
enthusiastically waxes that should it come to pass the session could be used to
reverse recent cost-cutting reformations made to state government. Of course,
nothing of the sort will happen, and not just because the math does not add up
to produce enough votes to override a veto of any of the reforms by their executor
Gov. Bobby Jindal, but also because by the time the session concludes, a large share
of the implementation will have become an accomplished fate.

24.10.12

If perhaps state Rep. Dee Richard can
manage to swing a third of the Senate to request a special session of the
Louisiana Legislature, setting up a needed majority vote in both chambers to
have it, or even that doesn’t transpire, the best thing he can do is declare a misinterpreted
victory now before sending the Legislature into one of the Pyrrhic variety.

In essence, he has announced the task to meeting is a quarter-way there
with the assent
of 38 House members to the petition. A similar performance by senators by
the end of Friday will set up the vote to hold it. Regardless of whether that
happens, at the close of Friday if he’s smart Richard will hail the effort as a
sign of vigor in and independence of the Legislature, and leave it at that.

Of course, in real life it’s nothing of the sort. Instead, his limited
success to date is part of the dying bray of liberalism and populism as
significant political forces in the state. The rationale for the session, as previously
noted, is to pass laws that would make the Legislature the equivalent of
the Transportation Security Administration for
Louisiana on budget implementation, with the chambers frisking executive
decisions to find any evidence of policies that could right-size state
government and/or impede their abilities to feed statewide or
constituency-based special interests at taxpayer expense that assist in their
reelections, and then to try to eliminate any offensive implementation
decisions that threaten their reelections and/or trouble their faiths in big
government.

23.10.12

The Louisiana Legislature’s Revenue
Study Commission grinds on, with its most recent review revealing greed,
arrogance, and presumption of the highest order.

The legislative panel is investigating the utility of tax breaks
granted by the state, with an eye towards eliminating those that do not
sufficiently bring benefits to the state. One of the most egregious offenders
in that regard is the absurdly generous credit given to solar panels that
enriches few at the expense of the people.

On top of a generous federal tax credit of 20 percent, the state in the
waning days of the Gov. Kathleen
Blanco Administration passed a law that lards on another
50 percent for solar or wind construction for the first $25,000 in expenses
(most installation costs will go above this level, many way above it). The most
recent figures indicate that costs $13 million a year, and the generosity is
such that the forgone dollars are expanding rapidly.

22.10.12

Get ready for a unpredictable Supreme Court District 5 contest to
replace retiring Chief Justice Kitty Kimball where the
only thing predictable about it is the winner will be a Republican.

Judicial contests in Louisiana take on peculiar characteristics. Legally,
judges can’t organize their own campaigns but may have committees do so on
their behalf. The public perceives that the office cannot be overly political,
clinging to the idea that ideology should not affect decisions, which also
affects campaigning. As a result, these tend to be low-information affairs with
less issue guidance for voters, magnifying name recognition’s influence on the
vote. The effect becomes particularly acute when no incumbent runs for a spot
on the state’s highest court.

Thus the two most important factors in these are campaign money spent
and endorsements. Reviewing these factors for the five Republicans, two
Democrats and one no-party contestant in a district
roughly five-eighths white, one-third black with the majority of Democrats
blacks and majority of whites Republicans begins with whether a Democrat can
make it to the inevitable runoff.

21.10.12

Treasurer John
Kennedy’s assumed gubernatorial candidacy took a hit last week with an
incident that goes against the narrative he has tried painstakingly to create
and, worse, feeds the one that has kept him from advancing beyond this one and
only elective office he ever has held.

The state swallowed a bitter pill last week when it decided to fork
over as much as $95 million in a bond retirement deal for the Mercedes-Benz
Superdome, because the interest rate environment and lapsing of a special
federal income tax exemption would make the eventual payouts even higher
through 2036. Essentially, the state made the wrong bet on interest rates and
has gotten caught in a situation where it would have paid high rates for many
years to come.

The state entity that runs the building, the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition
District, bears part of the blame for accepting the broker’s idea, but the ones
who work out the details are in the Treasury Department headed by Kennedy. He
also, as part of that office, runs the State Bond Commission and was present on
Mar.
6, 2006, when the $294 million sale went through and was the only item on
the agenda.

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